November 2019 POLICY BRIEF CHILD RIGHTS The Global Climate Crisis: NOW! A Child Rights Crisis “Acknowledging that climate change is a common concern of humankind, Parties should, when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity.” UNFCCC Paris Agreement, 2015 “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.” Greta Thunberg, 16-year old climate activist, UN Climate Action Summit, 2019 2 CHILD RIGHTS NOW! • The global climate crisis: a child rights crisis EXECUTIVE SUMMARY • Climate change arguably poses the single greatest challenge to the realisation of children’s rights, and threatens to undercut decades of hard-won progress to improve their lives. • Despite being least responsible for this unfolding crisis, children bear the brunt of the climate-related impacts, while possessing the fewest resources to respond and cope. At its core, climate change represents a shocking abdication of one generation’s responsibility to the next, violating principles of intergenerational equity. Drought, flooding, extreme weather events, rising temperatures, and desertification directly undermine a broad spectrum of children’s rights, from access to food and safe water, to housing, education, freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse, and – too frequently – their right to survive and thrive. Moreover, because resilience to climate change is shaped by broader socio-economic factors, such as gender inequality and poverty, the situation is particularly fraught for marginalised girls and other highly-vulnerable groups of children, compounding the multiple hardships that they face. • Tackling climate change demands urgent attention to equity, across borders and generations. The countries that have contributed least to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere tend to be the most vulnerable and to have limited capacity for adaptation. Because they also tend to have proportionately large and rapidly-growing child populations, their vulnerability to climate change puts ever-greater numbers of children at risk. • Despite the catastrophic implications for children’s rights posed by climate change, as well as the growing global movement of children and youth calling for ambitious climate action, recognition of children’s rights barely feature in key international, regional and national decision-making frameworks related to climate change, including the Paris Agreement and workstreams under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as the SDGs. This oversight is a violation of the guiding principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), notably that the best interest of the child – as well as their right to be heard – should be primary considerations in any decision that affects them. CHILD RIGHTS NOW! • The global climate crisis: a child rights crisis 3 Critical data and Children face problem analysis disproportionate and Since the adoption of the UN CRC in 1989, cascading forms of climate unprecedented gains have been made in children’s health, nutrition, access to education, harm and formal protections in laws and policies. Yet this progress risks being undermined by the Children are disproportionately vulnerable escalating climate crisis, which poses an acute to the impacts of climate change threat to children’s survival, development and largely because the early stage of their wellbeing. physiological and cognitive development makes them less-equipped to deal with Average global temperatures have already climate-related shocks and stresses. This surpassed 1ºC above pre-industrial levels, is particularly the case between birth and exposing millions of children, particularly the age of 5. For example, by 2100, 75% among the most disadvantaged communities, of the world’s people are projected to be to significant and severe threats to their rights. exposed to heatwaves so extreme they can Even the “best-case” scenario (limiting global kill.4 Young children are more vulnerable warming to 1.5ºC) would effectively put millions than adults to the life-threatening effects of children at risk of life-threatening climate- of heatwaves, since they are less able to related impacts.1 regulate their body temperature, and must rely on others to control the temperature of the surrounding environment.5 Children are Children are one of the also more likely than adults to be injured, to experience psychological trauma, or be largest groups affected by killed by natural hazard-related disasters.6 climate change Children are also more likely to experience health complications due to the impacts of Many of the countries that are most climate change on water and food security, vulnerable to climate change also have such as drought, crop failure, and decreased a higher proportion of children in their nutritional value of staple crops due to populations,2 with demographic trends higher carbon dioxide concentrations. suggesting that many of these countries are Nearly half of all deaths among children also those in which child populations tend under the age of 5 are associated with to be growing most rapidly. According to undernutrition, which also places children UNICEF data, over half a billion children live at greater risk of dying from infections and in areas with extremely high risk of flooding; diseases.7 Undernutrition in the first two 115 million are at high or extremely high years of life can lead to irreversible stunting, risk from tropical cyclones, and almost 160 with negative effects on children’s physical million are exposed to high or extremely and cognitive development, impacting high drought severity. 3 their health, educational performance, and economic productivity later in life.8 The WHO estimates that climate change will lead to nearly 95,000 additional deaths per year due to undernutrition in children aged 5 and under by 2030, and an additional 24 million undernourished children by 2050.9 Furthermore, climate change is expected to lead to an additional 7.5 million children under the age of 5 who are moderately or severely stunted by 2030.10 4 CHILD RIGHTS NOW! • The global climate crisis: a child rights crisis Rising temperatures are increasing the © Philip Maher - Kenya incidence of water- and vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever. Children under the age of 5 already bear the global burden of these diseases, accounting for almost 80% of all deaths from malaria in 2014.11 It is anticipated that by 2030, climate change will result in an additional 60,000 deaths from malaria among children under the age of 15. Diarrhoeal disease is another leading cause of death among children, and is also set to increase as a result of drought, flooding and changing precipitation patterns, threatening safe water supplies and hygiene practices. By 2030, climate-related increases in diarrhoeal disease are anticipated to lead to Gender dimensions of the death of an additional 48,000 children under the age of 15.12 climate change Beyond children’s rights to life, survival, development and health, climate change The impacts of climate change, as well as the also threatens their right to education. measures that are adopted to address these, Extreme weather events destroy schools, frequently exacerbate gender inequalities. while climate-related impacts on nutrition For example, adolescent girls are and physical and mental health affect particularly affected by threats to safe water children’s ability to learn. Loss of family supplies, since they are often responsible livelihoods and income due to climate stress for water collection. They may be required is also correlated with loss of education as to travel further to find sufficient quantities of children are obliged to assist with household water in a changing climate, representing tasks, or to seek work, leading to increases a significant physical and time-consuming in child labour, child marriage, and other burden, with implications for their education, violations of their rights.13 leisure time and wellbeing. In addition, during long journeys to fetch water or other Children are acutely vulnerable in the household resources, such as firewood, context of climate-related migration and girls may be exposed to risks such as sexual displacement.14 For example, climate violence. A lack of water also raises clear change can lead to internal migration of sexual and reproductive health concerns, as families to urban areas where children may girls need access to water and hygiene and be forced into labour. The disruptive effects sanitation purposes during menstruation and of migration on family networks can be pregnancy15. particularly harmful for young children aged 0-3 who are often left at home alone or in Climate stress also leads to negative coping the care of young siblings while their parents mechanisms. Human Rights Watch has seek or go to work. documented how families facing repeated climate-related shocks in their communities due to river erosion, loss of crops or cyclones, were more likely to marry off their daughters at a young age,